Hawks Volleyball Splits on Final Day of Pool Play

By Ryan Novitsky

CORTLAND – The women’s volleyball team at the State University of New York at New Paltz split its pair of matches on Saturday in the final SUNYAC Pool Play weekend, falling to SUNY Oneonta 3-1 (17-25, 25-18, 21-25, 18-25) before knocking off host SUNY Cortland 3-1 (25-17, 25-21, 16-25, 25-16).

New Paltz (16-10, 7-2 SUNYAC) will be the No. 3 seed in the upcoming 2016 SUNYAC Women’s Volleyball Tournament and will host No. 6 seed SUNY Oswego (14-13, 5-4 SUNYAC) on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinals. The Hawks enjoyed a 3-1 win over the Lakers earlier this season on Sept. 24.

The Hawks will prepare to host local rival Vassar on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. for Senior Night as New Paltz honors its five senior members. The Brewers are currently the No. 6 team in the New York Region.

Oneonta 3, New Paltz 1
Against the Red Dragons, senior outside hitter Anna Paulik led the attack with 12 kills while freshman outside hitter Maddie Van Pelt chipped in 10 kills while hitting .368.
Junior libero Veronica Matedero led the defense with 13 digs while junior setter Maddie Zwickl orchestrated the offense with 35 assists.

Despite dropping the first set, the Hawks responded nicely in the second and manage to knot the match up at 1-1. However, Oneonta bounced back and took the next two sets to hand New Paltz the 3-1 defeat in a Catskill Cup contest. Currently, the Hawks still lead the SUNYAC rivalry, 7-4.

New Paltz 3, Cortland 1
Going up against the host team, the Hawks enjoyed a 19 kill performance from Roessler, hitting .378 on 37 attempts while Brittany Tyack floored 11 kills. Roessler also generated five total blocks and six digs.

Zwickl distributed a match-high 52 assists to go along with 15 digs. Along with Zwickl, four other players tallied double-digit digs with Paulik (27), Matedero (23), freshman libero Nicole Fellone (17) and junior libero Meg Kinee (15).

The Hawks claimed the first two sets but let off of the gas pedal a bit, dropping the third stanza. New Paltz then recovered nicely to close out the match, going 2-1 during the final SUNYAC Pool Play weekend of 2016.